Saturday, March 31, 2012

Milestone promotions for the US Capitol Police

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

Updated 07:04 a.m., Saturday, March 31, 2012

Officers Yogananda "Yogi" Pittman, left, and Monique Moore, right, the first two African-American women to be promoted to the rank of captain on the U.S. Capitol Police force, stand together on the East Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 19, 2012. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Yogananda Pittman and Monique Moore climbed the ranks of the U.S. Capitol Police, they encountered no top-level supervisors who looked like them. No black women, from the chief down to the captains, were represented in the upper management of the federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting lawmakers and congressional buildings.

So it was more than a personal honor when the two became the first black women promoted to captain in the department, which in the past decade has been roiled by allegations from minority officers that they were passed over for promotions and subjected to racial intimidation and harassment.

"I just definitely think it lets them know that it's attainable," Pittman said of younger black officers. "When you see someone who looks like yourself in the rank of captain and what have you, they know they can do it."

Bloomberg USA: New York City Will Sue Sponsors of Legal Immigrants Who End Up on the Dole

NEW YORK  Mayor Bloomberg, in a startling departure from his pro-immigration stance, is testing a new program designed to chase down sponsors of legal immigrants who end up on certain kinds of public assistance, and the city intends to make the sponsors pay back money to the government.

The threat is being made by the city's Human Resources Administration, which is circulating a press release warning that it will start sending out in August letters to sponsors of immigrants who are not citizens but who are receiving cash assistance from a program called Safety Net. It estimates that there are 12,000 sponsors the city could go after, but says it expects that it will only recover from about 8% of them, or 960 cases.

An amateur indoor tennis tournament designed to prepare members involved in our instructional program for competitive outdoor play. The tournament will feature an adult 18 & up division, a 13-17 teen division, and an 8-12 children's division. The adult division will consist of men's and women's singles as well as mixed doubles. The teen division will feature girl's and boy's singles matches while the chiidren's division will be co-ed.

HARLEM  The owner of a Harlem liquor store broken into twicein a week says police took too long to respond, and failed to look at surveillance footage which showed the thieves until after they'd struck a second time.

Berihu Mesfin, owner ofFreeland Liquor & Wineat Lenox Avenue and 119th Street, said video footage shows police didn't arrive at the store until 28 minutes after the second burglary on March 22. In addition, they did not come to pick up surveillance tapes from the first burglary on March 17 until March 24, two days after the second burglary.

"What I see is carelessness from the police," said Mesfin, who added that cops told him they were going to examine the footage the day before the second burglary.

Burglars broke into Mesfin's store in the Mount Morris Park Historic District by cutting see-through gates and drilling a hole in the lock at 1 a.m. On March 17. Video footage shows hooded men hopping the counter and stuffing their pockets with $4,000 in cash.

Sally Hemings was Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave, and the mother of several of the third American president's children. In a piece for Slate, Max Perry Mueller reports that she was also posthumously baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and may be "sealed" in an eternal marriage bond with Jefferson, in the church's view:

On April 21, 1991, two members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered a baptismal font. One laid hands upon another and proclaimed, “having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and in behalf of Sally Hemings, who is dead.”

Yesterday came word that 1 World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, has officially grown taller than the Empire State Building. That's counting the external framework, which has reached the 100th Floor— the floors themselves look to be at least four stories behind. But as 1 WTC approaches its final height of 104 stories, it is time to ask a difficult but important question: Is this skyscraper a little too short? [ more › ]

HARTFORD, Conn. — Since becoming the first African American to graduate from the Coast Guard Academy in 1966, Merle Smith (pictured) has seen more diversity among the corps of cadets. But he says the academy still has work to do to better reflect the face of America.

The service academy, which is honoring Smith with a pioneer award Sunday, has been getting pressure from Congress to boost enrollment of minorities, particularly African-Americans, who account for roughly 5 percent of incoming cadets.

Smith, 67, said in an interview that he has been impressed by the academy’s recruitment efforts.

“We’re not there, but we’ve got to keep pushing for it,” he said.

The push to achieve diversity at the academy in New London dates back more than 50 years to the inaugural parade of President John F. Kennedy, who noted there wasn’t a single black cadet in the Coast Guard Academy marching unit that passed him on Pennsylvania Avenue. Kennedy told an aide something ought to be done about it.

Smith arrived on campus a year later and, as the son of an Army colonel, he adapted well to the military environment and generally did not feel like an outsider.

“Every now and then you would get something that would happen. Someone would make some remark somewhere,” he said. “In the main, it was not a situation that I felt uncomfortable with.”

After graduating, his Coast Guard career took him to Vietnam in 1969, where he commanded a patrol boat for a year. He became the first sea-service African-American to be awarded a Bronze Star. He received a law degree from George Washington University and returned to the New London area to work as an attorney for Electric Boat, the Groton-based submarine builder. He also taught law at the Coast Guard Academy.

Smith is among five people being honored as part of an annual event, known as Eclipse Week. The event began decades ago to support African-Americans in the Coast Guard community and now promotes discussion of diversity across the academy.

The other honorees include Frances Neal, an African-American food service worker for 25 years and surrogate mother to many cadets, and Vice Admiral Manson K. Brown, an African-American who is commander of the Pacific area for the Coast Guard and a former student of Smith’s. A former equal employment opportunity officer at the academy and a rear admiral credited with diversity leadership also will be honored.

The academy has about 1,030 cadets in its four-year program. Students graduate with a bachelor of science degree and an obligation to serve five years in the Coast Guard.

Minorities accounted for 34 percent of the class of 2015 although blacks represent only 4 or 5 percent, according to Antonio Farias, the academy’s chief diversity officer.

Academy officials have been called to report on diversity numbers to Congress, which has considered various proposals to boost black enrollment.

“We’ve taken that to heart,” Farias said. “It’s also been a clarifying experience. We know what we’re trying to do.”

Last year the academy launched a leadership program that invites science and technology students from historically black colleges and universities to help train cadets. The goal is to have them return to their communities and share project-based educational methods in a way that trickles down to high school and even elementary school students. The academy also has started inviting teachers from diverse communities for training in the summers, Farias said.

One obstacle is limited knowledge about the Coast Guard in the black community.

“There aren’t that many people in the African-American community that really encounter the Coast Guard because it’s not a great boating community,” Smith said.

Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who has pushed for a more diverse corps of cadets, urged the academy to continue to prioritize outreach efforts despite budget pressures.

“The exceptional strides the Coast Guard Academy has made in expanding diversity are a testament to the service’s commitment to ensuring its officer corps reflects the nation it serves,” Cummings said.

Senegalese voters in Harlem still had an hour left to vote in their home country’s national election on Sunday , when they heard the report that President Abdoulaye Wade had conceded defeat in his controversial bid for a third term.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The last time we checked in with the newish East Harlem liquor store Freeland Liquor & Wine, the very vocal members of the Mount Morris Park Historic District had pressured the owners into getting rid of their bulletproof glass, and metal "riot gates," which some neighbors deemed "ghetto" and bringing "down everything we are trying to build up." So the owners of the store—who were also in trouble with the Buildings Department and Landmarks Commission—cooperated and got rid of the plexiglass. Then they got robbed. Twice. [ more › ]